"Julia?" Shelby asked as Cameron dumped her on a stretcher and she glanced between the two of them. "What happened?"
"Axel happened," Cameron supplied as Shelby gasped, but then sprang into action to determine how bad the damage was. "My guess? Concussion, possibly some cracked ribs."
"What? I thought he liked her," Shelby said she began removing Julia's shirt and saw the large bruises that were already forming. What had Axel done to her?
"Something happened. He seemed really off and he went after her hard, harder than what should happen for sparring. Then…then he was teleported out," Cameron forced out as Shelby stopped and stared at him in horror. The only people that she knew could teleport were rangers or things that came after rangers. "I don't know what that means."
"It means we're dealing with an evil ranger. One very similar to me," Tommy stated as he walked into the room and they looked back at him. He glanced at Julia and then cringed- that had to hurt, but he also had to give it to her that she had hung in there with Axel. He had only ever seen one other female ranger be that strong and she had birthed his babies. "In, apparently, very similar circumstances. Cam- go get Brandon and Patrick- there is something all of you need to see."
"Dr. O- is she going to be alright?" Shelby asked as she started treating the superficial wounds and Tommy shrugged. If history was any indicator- she'd be fine, but he knew that they couldn't trust history fully. If Axel was worse than him, Julia would be in grave danger. He and Kimberly had nearly killed each other multiple times and it was still something that left him with nightmares. "What's the point of being a prophetess if I can't protect my friends?"
"There's times when we have to let things happen," Kimberly stated as she settled on the couch as the babies squirmed against her. Shelby glared at her, not believing that Kimberly would ascribe to such drivel. "This was one of those times- I didn't expect this to happen to Julia. I did know that we couldn't interfere with Axel and whatever was meant to happen with him."
"We could have warned her not to care about him. That he was bad news. That he…" Shelby trailed off as she saw Kim and Tommy exchange a glance. Sure, that is who he was now, but that was not who he was going to be forever. "Why couldn't we do that?"
"Are the boys coming back?" Kim asked as the door was thrown open and she nodded as they filed in. "Well…I guess this is easy- do you want me to explain?"
"Please," Tommy muttered as he grabbed Kira and Jay dove for Kimberly's chest and he chuckled as he tossed a cover over to her.
"There's a history of evil rangers, especially in the first set. If you think of a couple of years ago as a reset- you're the first generation of this new era. In our generation- Tommy was an evil ranger at first. He showed up and he immediately attracted all the wrong attention from Rita Repulsa. We were even supposed to go out on a date and he didn't show. He did a 180 overnight. He nearly killed us, but the connection- the little connection we had before- it saved him and us. I was able to reach him and he came back, we broke it and that's why he's here now. If he's been given powers and it sounds like he has…that's why it was important to let you connect. To let you see him as a potential friend and for him to maybe see a bit of that too," Kimberly said as she covered up and Jay started hungrily gulping at her boob which provided some much needed levity to this story. "Little dude…you act like I don't feed you."
"What do we do to help her? To help him?" Shelby asked as Julia groaned and her eyes opened a bit. "Hey…easy."
"He didn't come back?" Julia whispered and Shelby looked away from her before shaking her head. "I thought that maybe…he would…"
"It takes time and consistency," Tommy stated as he moved into her field of vision. "Have a headache?"
"A bit," Julia muttered as she tried to sit up, but they held her still. "I'm fine."
"You have a concussion, at the least a mild one. Patrick will help you back to your room- I'll be getting you a doctor's note for the next week so that you can heal up," Tommy said and Julia glared at him. She did not want to rest, she wanted to go after Axel and pay him back. "Don't even try it- you need to rest and heal. If he's going to come back- you stand the best chance to bring him back."
"Come back from what?" Julia asked as they exchanged a glance. "He's a monster."
"No, he's an evil ranger and he will cause a lot of damage until this team gets him back. Our only real chance here is that he connected with one of the rangers- which seems to be you," Tommy said and Julia just shook her head. She couldn't do that- he had just taken her heart and stomped all over it. Even if he was evil- she didn't open herself up often and the pain was too raw to even consider giving him another chance. "I know you're hurting, just give him a chance to come around. And then- you can kick his ass because he deserves it and he will deserve it."
"Damn right he does," Cam remarked as he picked her up from her other side and they walked down the hallway. He looked over at her as the tears streamed down her face and noticed how Patrick was ignoring it. When they got to her room, Patrick awkwardly patted her shoulder and she looked away from him. "Hey…we're here. I can't say that he'll come around and be the same person. I can say that you aren't in this alone."
"I can't talk about this," Julia whispered as Shelby pushed Cameron out of the way and gave her a hug. She gripped her tightly and just depended on Shelby keeping her on her feet. "Shel…"
"You don't have to, let's get you some rest," Shelby whispered as she helped Julia and she glanced back at Cameron. His face said so much about what had happened and she hoped she could help her. She hoped that Kimberly was right about how this would work out, because she hated to see her friend hurting this much.
